Fantasy The Most Monstrous Dungeons & Dragons Monsters

List Rules Vote up the most fearsome and troublesome beasts in the Monster Manual

Dungeons & Dragons is full of monsters that you have to defeat in order to complete your quest. Even though they only exist to drain abilities and devour items, every player still has a favorite creature or two from the Monster Manual. The best Dungeons and Dragons monsters aren’t just the standard hack and slash creepy crawlies that we’re all used to. Either they update an iconic piece of mythology to suit the gameplay, or they have a backstory that fills out the world, making the game seem even more real. Prepare your party for the most monstrous Dungeons & Dragons monsters.

Of all the features of the best D&D monsters, one of the things that raises them into the upper echelon of monstedom (a real thing that we didn’t just make up) is its power to stay with the player, even after the creature has been defeated. Some monsters, like the Rot Grub, are so gross that they can give you nightmares if you’re squeamish. While The Drow have found their way into pop culture on TV shows like Community. Every player has their favorite in game monster; did yours make the cut? Take a look at the greatest monsters in Dungeons and Dragons and find out.

Vote up your favorite monsters from the Monster Manual, and if we didn’t include your favorite baddie, cast a spell typing on our comments and let us know what you would have included.

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Mind Flayer

Photo: Benny Mazur/flickr/CC-BY 2.0 The Illithid, or Mind Flayer, is one of the many Lovecraftian beasts in D&D, which means that it's not only awesome to look at, but it can also drive you mad. Illithids tend to use other monsters as slaves, but if you go toe to toe with one, you better have a member of the undead on your side or some baller summon spells.

The Tarrasque is sort of like a dragon, but it's not a dragon. It's just a very hungry, very large, and very angry lizard that's basically unkillable and unmagickable. The best you can hope to do against the Tarrasque is to make it go to sleep.

Photo: Huntleigh/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0 What's creepier than a giant eye with a mouth, covered in smaller eyes? Nothing. Beholders have been around since D&D first started, and even though they're a pain to deal with (can you say "anti-magic cone?") they're still a fan favorite.

Photo: YouTube Aboleths are basically a tangle of sentient eel monsters, and if that wasn't bad enough, they have psionic abilities on par with Mind Flayers. Aboleths are from the Lovecraftian side of D&D, and they're basically Chtulu-lite. Hope you like going insane!